NORRISTOWN — A former Pottstown store operator is the first merchant in Montgomery County to be convicted at trial under a recently enacted law of distributing synthetic marijuana from a business.

Rafie L. Ali, 35, who previously lived in an apartment above the Achi Store he helped operate at 315 E. High Street between February and May 2012, appeared stone-faced Thursday as a county jury convicted him of charges of corrupt organizations, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia and conspiring with another man to commit those crimes. The jury deliberated about 2˝ hours before reaching its verdict.

The arrest and trial of Ali marked the first time that a store operator was charged in the county with selling synthetic marijuana, known as K2, under a state law that went into effect in August 2011 and criminalized such activity.

“After that law went into effect it was publicized heavily that synthetic cannabinoids are illegal. In this case these individuals decided to get around that by hiding the K2 substances behind the counter and selling it. It’s a matter of greed, trying to make money off of…a toxic substance,” said First Assistant District Attorney Kevin R. Steele.

Advertisement

Steele and co-prosecutor Nicholas Reifsnyder said the jury’s verdict sends a message to other merchants who might be selling synthetic drugs.

“If they are, they better get rid of it and they better not sell it out of their stores or otherwise they’re going to end up here in court facing a corrupt organizations charge,” Steele warned.

Ali, who had moved from the Pottstown area while awaiting trial, was immediately taken into custody by sheriff’s deputies after the judge increased his bail to $250,000 cash, 10 percent. If Ali posts bail, he is to reside at his brother’s home in the 400 block of East High Street, be subject to electronic monitoring and prohibited from leaving the county, the judge said.

Ali, who reportedly was born in Yemen but is an American citizen, previously forfeited his passport to authorities.

Defense lawyer James P. Lyons and co-defense lawyer John W. Aitchison indicated Ali is disappointed about the verdict.

“He’s been terrified the entire process. Standing next to him, I could feel him shaking as the verdict was being read,” said Lyons, who argued the new state law under which Ali was charged is “seriously flawed” because it targets small business owners instead of large distributors of the substances who assure store operators they are legal.

K2 is a Schedule I synthetic cannabinoid, which is believed to mimic the effects of cannabis, authorities allege. A Schedule I drug is one that currently has no legitimate medical purpose under Pennsylvania law and has a high potential for abuse.

During the trial, Steele and Reifsnyder alleged Ali ran a corrupt organization involved in illegal drug activity. Prosecutors, relying on the testimony of Pottstown police officers who made undercover purchases of the K2, alleged Ali didn’t have the product on display but secretly kept it behind the counter and retrieved it from a garbage bag when a customer asked for it.

“Why is it behind the counter in a black bag where you can’t see it? Because he knows it’s illegal, plain and simple,” Steele argued as a photo of the black bag containing vials of K2 was displayed to the jury on a giant projection screen by Jonathan Perrone, computer operations supervisor in the district attorney’s office.

But Lyons and Aitchison argued that Ali had no knowledge that anything illegal was being sold from the store or that the products contained controlled substances.

“A mom and pop grocery store is not a corrupt organization. The Mafia is a corrupt organization. This is a legitimate grocery store,” Lyons argued to the jury. “He’s a simple guy running a grocery store, breaking his butt each day.”

Ali testified he believed the vials of “Dead Man” and “Power Diesel” were legal, on the advice of his onetime business partner Mohamed K. Himed, when he sold them from his store. Ali claimed Himed even showed him a lab report, purportedly from a New York distributor of the products, which indicated the products were legal.

“They’re being told by the distributors that it’s lawful. So you see the conundrum for these retailers,” Lyons argued.

Aitchison and Lyons implied Ali didn’t know the products were illegal because the bottles did not include a list of ingredients or chemical compounds that were inside. Some product labels even claimed the items contained “no prohibited ingredients,” according to testimony.

Earlier this year, Himed, 26, of the Bronx, N.Y., pleaded guilty to a charge of corrupt organizations and various drug-related offenses in connection with the incidents and is awaiting sentencing.

The arrests of Ali and Himed were an outgrowth of the investigation of an 11:30 p.m. May 21, 2012, double-fatal wreck on State Street between Ninth and 10th streets in Pottstown. Authorities alleged the driver of the vehicle, Roger Tracy Malloy, 27, of Pottstown, was driving under the influence of K2 at the time of the fatal crash.

When authorities learned that the K2 Malloy smoked was allegedly purchased at the Achi Store, they launched an undercover investigation of the store during which an undercover officer purchased two containers of K2 from the store on May 22.

Armed with a search warrant, authorities subsequently seized from the store more than 30 vials of K2, more than 30 crack pipes, 13 bowls used for smoking marijuana, more than $1,000 cash and a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic handgun, stored underneath the counter.

Under existing state laws, authorities could not charge Ali or Himed with homicide-related charges in connection with the alleged drug sales and their alleged link to the fatal crash.

While jurors weighing Ali’s fate did not hear any testimony about the fatal crash, they did learn only that remnants of K2 were found in a 1997 Lincoln Continental, which was the vehicle allegedly operated by Malloy. Prosecutors and defense lawyers also stipulated to the testimony of a 17 year old Pottstown boy who was in the Lincoln Continental and who claimed he purchased K2 from the store on at least two occasions.

Malloy, of the 300 block of North York Street, is awaiting trial on charges of vehicular homicide while driving under the influence of a controlled substance in connection with the crash that claimed the lives of James N. Crawford, 28, of Pottstown, who was Malloy’s housemate, and Rachael Witt, 15, a ninth-grade student at Pottstown High School, passengers in the gold Lincoln Continental allegedly operated by Malloy.

Follow Carl Hessler Jr. on Twitter @MontcoCourtNews

The following is an earlier version of this story.

NORRISTOWN — A former Pottstown store operator is the first merchant in Montgomery County under a recently enacted law to be convicted at trial of distributing synthetic marijuana from a business.

Rafie L. Ali, 35, who previously lived in an apartment above the Achi Store he helped operate at 315 E. High Street between February and May 2012, showed little emotion Thursday as a county jury convicted him of charges of corrupt organizations, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia and conspiring with another man to commit those crimes.

The arrest and trial of Ali marked the first time that a store operator was charged in the county with selling synthetic marijuana known as K2, under a state law that went into effect in August 2011.

About the Author

Carl Hessler Jr. writes about crime and justice at the Montgomery County Courthouse for The Mercury and 21st Century Media Newspaper’s Greater Philadelphia area publications. A native of Reading, he studied at Penn State University and Kutztown University before graduating from Alvernia University with a degree in communications. He is a recipient of a National Headliner Award and has been honored for his writing by the Keystone Press Association, Philadelphia Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and the Associated Press Managing Editors of Pennsylvania. Reach the author at chessler@pottsmerc.com
or follow Carl on Twitter: @MontcoCourtNews.